Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I earlier suggested that the Clinton campaign was doing too little, too late in the Colorado delegate selection process. She organized like crazy for the Denver county convention this past weekend, but the delegates were basically all pledged from caucus night on Feb. 5th, and the share of Clinton delegates going to the state convention is almost exactly the same as the share of Clinton delegates selected during the caucuses. At least, that's what happened in Denver.

However, here's a description of what happened in Adams County. Because the Clinton county delegates are, for the most part, party regulars, and the Obama county delegates are, for the most part, new to the process, the Clinton folks actually stayed in the game. It's a long process from caucus night to the national convention, and people selected at one level have to be counted on to stick it out to the next one. Democratic caucus-goers in Adams County voted 55-45 for Obama. However, the Adams County Democratic Convention is sending an equal number of Obama and Clinton delegates to the state convention, either because the Clinton delegates are more reliable or because the Clinton campaign is better organized here now.

This is a potentially huge story that's not receiving much media attention, save here. If the Clinton folks are working all the caucus states this way, she could be eeking closer to Obama's delegate share in state contests that have already happened.

Update: I checked the Feb. 5th vote shares, and it looks like that original post from Adams County was in error. Obama only beat Clinton 51-46 there, with 3% unaffiliated. So it actually wouldn't be that much of a stretch for the county to send an even share of delegates to the state convention. Still, Clinton may have picked up all the unaffiliateds.